OPEN: So today we are going to be moving forward in our study through the book of James. and we are going to be talking about God's plans and our plans and how they combine with one another. When you think about God's plans for your life what kind of emotion response does it create? Is it positive or negative? Does it bring a smile to your face or fill your heart with anxiety? One of the tools the enemy uses against us before we come to Christ is that if follow God's plan, our life will be miserable, we'll never have any fun. We will have to give up everything that brings happiness and laughter into our lives and become this despondent, depressed, unhappy cranky Christian. And it's true that there are some Christians like that, aren't there? I can guarantee that God has something better planned for each of us.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)
God has good plans for each of us that moves us into a good life filled with good things. This a promise from God and God keeps his promises. God wants to fill our lives with his hope and accomplish his purposes.
One of the defining characteristics of a believer is that we live to fulfill God's will. Fulfilling God's plans for our lives should be the over-arching preoccupation of our life on earth.
You remember the story in Mark chapter 3 when while Jesus was teaching his family came to see him. Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you." "Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." What He was saying is those who are related to Me are related to Me as demonstrated by their desire to do My Father's will. nothing is more characteristic of a Christian than a desire to do the will of God. It doesn't mean we always do it, but the desire is there. And when we fail to do it, there's a sense that we're off track.
The psalmist put it this way, in Psalm 40:8 he said, "I delight to do Your will, O my God, yes Your law is within my heart." and "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground." (Psalm 143:10)
It's as if he is saying in one place I want to do it, and in another place I'm not sure I know how. I delight in doing it, teach me specifically how. Basic to one's relationship to Christ then is doing the will of God.
My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (John 5:30)
as a believer look at the model of Christ I see the essence of a relationship to God bound up in this desire to do what God wants. And though my obedience is imperfect, it is nonetheless characteristic of my relationship to Him as His child bearing His nature that I have a desire to do His will. On the other hand, if there is in the heart no desire to do the will of God, that is the mark of a rebel, that is the mark of one who has not been transformed, one who does not love God. Disregard for and constant disinterest in the will of God is the surest evidence of the presence of pride. What's your attitude towards God's will for you today? When you made your plans today, did you factor in the possibility that He might have plans for you today that are different than the plans you made for yourself?
Context: James moves from talking about people who are playing God (By judging others) to talking about those who live as if there is no God (by ignoring Him as they make their plans) We're going to explore the passage by asking a series of questions that kind of flow out of each section.
Does it Make Sense To Make Plans Without Including God?
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." (James 4:13)
James is addressing a group of people who are living in a manner that doesn't make any sense at all. It's not that they are successful or intelligent people, it's just that they live in a way that basically ignores God. They live as if God wasn't even around. That's not something that's even on their agenda, It's not something that occupies any thought at all for them. They are just preoccupied with living out their life and listening to what God has for them isn't part of their routine.
He starts and says, "Now listen" Some translations say, "Come now" Some say, "Pay attention" In Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony says, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" He's saying, "Listen up!" I don't get the sense James is waxing eloquent here. I think he was looking right at people in his congregation and I think that what he has to say that probably burned their ears. I think he was listening in on some conversations that were taking place as people were coming if for worship. One guy sees another, "How's it going?" "Pretty well." "How's business?" "Doing fine." "So what do you have cooking these days?" And the other guy proceeds to lay out his business plans for the next couple of months: "Well, I'm planning on going over to Philippi and we're trying to open a new market for our new line of sandals. Probably take about a year to get going the business there, so me and the fam. are probably going to be moving there. But I'm sure it's going to be real successful. These sandals are selling like hot cakes and we should make a pile of money from it." That's the typical kind of business conversation you might hear, right?
Strategizing how the business is going to grow and expand seems pretty smart. And the way James conveys it, their business plan was pretty well thought out. They had everything figured out at least almost everything. If you were writing a business plan these are the kind of things you include: When: "today or tomorrow" Where: "this or that city" How: "spend a year" What: "do business" Interesting Greek word. It is the word (emporeusomatha) the first part of it, emporeuis the root from which we get emporium. An emporium is a place of business, to conduct business is what it means. Why: "to make money" So this looks like a fairly good business plan, right?
Now in and of itself, is that kind of planning sinful? Is it? Is there something ethically wrong with planning like that? Is there something immoral about saying we're going to go over here we're going to stay there, we're going to do this, we're going to make money? I think every businessman would say that. I don't think in itself there's anything immoral about it, anything unethical about it. No spiritual principles are violated in that verse by anything that is said. In fact, any businessman worth his salt ought to have some kind of plan, right?
Except for one thing - In all their planning, they left out the most important - the Who -
God was nowhere in their plans. The issue here is not in what is said, the issue here is in what is not said. There's no mention of God in the plan at all. The problem with the guy's plan is he is living as if God doesn't exist at all. -- It's not that the person believes in no God -- chances are it's just the opposite. In the prior verses James makes a big deal about calling them brothers several times. They're believers all right -- it's just that they don't factor God into their plans -- they live as if God doesn't exist. This is the man or woman who runs their own life, foolishly ignoring God and showing utter disrespect for His sovereignty -- presuming their plans are the only thing they have to worry about.
Look at Luke 12:16-21 with me: And he told them this parable: The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, "What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops." Then he said, "This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." But God said to him, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.
Look at how many times he makes reference to himself; "my crops, what I'll do, my barns, my grain, my goods, I'll say to myself." In a space of speaking a total of 43 words, he used "I," "me" or "my" 11 times! Every fourth word was about himself. This farmer was all wrapped up in himself and when a person is all wrapped up in themselves they make a pretty small package! The Bible confirms you are a fool if you are living a self-centered life. Proverbs 28:26 says, "He who trusts in himself is a fool."
In the light of all the complexities that make up our world, does it make any sense to talk like that? To live like that? Life is not simple. It is an infinite complexity of forces, events, people, circumstances, all beyond your control and my control, so variable, so utterly uncontrollable that it is beyond any man to either ascertain the future or design the future or control the future.
Every business plan is a form of gambling. When you go for the business loan with your plan - the banker is basically trying figure out the odds of you actually being able to pay him back with interest, before you go bankrupt. The banker is a gambler. Every time you want to borrow money, the banker is gambling. "What are the odds of this guy being able to pay me back my money, plus interest?" Ill - suppose you take ten pennies and mark them from one to ten...just one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten on the pennies. Put them in your pocket and shake your pocket...just shake it around for a while, mix them up. Now try to draw them out in sequence from one through ten, the way you put them in. Putting each coin back in your pocket after each draw. You draw out "one" you put it back, draw out "two" put it back, draw out "three"...your chance of drawing out number one is one in ten. You put the penny back in your pocket and then try to draw out number one and then number two in succession -- your odds are now 1 in a hundred. You put those two pennies back in your pocket and then try to draw out numbers 1,2,3 in correct order -- your odds are now one in a thousand. Your chance of drawing one, two, three, four in succession is one in ten thousand, and so on until your chance of drawing number one through ten in succession would reach the unbelievable figure of one chance in ten billion.
Now if you can't deal with ten pennies in your pocket, how you going to control everything in your environment? You can't. Infinite complexities that are far out beyond your ability and my ability to control. And yet there are some people in the world who imagine foolishly that they are in charge. The foolishness of ignoring God's will.
See when you ignore God's will what you are actually ignoring is the benefit that comes from God who has the power to control the infinite complexities that you can't factor into your plan. When you ignore God's plan -- you ignore the benefits that God will bring when he directs the plan. What a confidence it is to believe in a sovereign God who knows perfectly and with unerring accuracy every factor in the universe and who is controlling them all to His own purposes and wants to make you a part of those purposes. So not only is it foolish to order your life, ignoring the will of God from the viewpoint that you can't control it, but it is foolish to try to live that way because you're cancelling out the very thing which can give your life meaning, and that is the work of God in your behalf. And He alone is the one who controls everything. Someone once said, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans." So James kind of asks, "Does it make sense to make plans without including God?" Then he takes a step further:
Does It Make Sense To Presume Upon Tomorrow?
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:14)
Ill. - A doctor called one of his patients into his office to deliver some very important news. "I have received the results of your tests and I have some bad news and some good news", said the doctor. The patient was quiet for a moment, sensing the severity of the announcement. "Let me have the good news first, doc", said the patient. The doctor took a deep breath and said, "You only have 24 hours to live." "Oh my goodness", shouted the patient, "If that's the good news what could the bad news possibly be?" The doctor replied, "I was supposed to call you yesterday."
"You don't even know what will happen tomorrow." How many people think they know what is going to happen tomorrow? How about if we take out a piece of paper and you write down what you think it going to happen in your life tomorrow? How many of our yesterdays were full of surprises for us? Our tomorrow might change the entire course of our life, right? It might be absolutely wonderful or it might be the biggest challenge we ever face this side of eternity. Proverbs 27:1 "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." You don't have a clue what tomorrow will bring -- neither do I. We live by assumptions -- and so often those assumptions don't happen.
Not only do you not know what is going to happen tomorrow -- you don't know if you are going to be in tomorrow -- if there is going to be a tomorrow available for you. You're like a mist (atmis) -- we get our word atmosphere from it. -- you're like steam. Have you ever seen steam come off a tea kettle? It's there for a moment and then it disappears. That's you life on earth. The Bible says in a number of different ways -- but they all have the same meaning. They all point to the brevity - the fragility of life on earth.
* You are like a shadow -- a shadow isn't permanent -- it's there momentarily and then the sun moves on and the shadow doesn't exist any longer. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. (1 Chron. 29:15)
* Like a cloud. As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to the grave does not return. (Job 7:9)
As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to the grave does not return.
* Like a breath. For He remembered that they were but flesh, A breath that passes away and does not come again. (Psalm 78:39) Ever been outside on a cold day and you breath out and you can see your breath? But it absorbed into the cold air and it's gone.
That's our life. We are here on earth and we're gone. So whatever plans you're making for tomorrow -- let me remind you -- you are steam, a mist, a vapor -- a cloud -- a breath -- a shadow. He's making clear, that our lives on earth are at best very transitory. That's the way God has designed us.
Why does the Bible speak about the brevity of life so often?
- there's no way for you to be over-prepared for the shock of when it happens, is there?
Chances are that most people are going to be the under-prepared -- not over-prepared. So it doesn't make sense to live with a presumptuous attitude. We're far more likely to get absorbed in the things of life that have little or no meaning than to get serious about the reality that there is going to come a moment for each of us when are going to be doing whatever we are doing for the very last time. (ill of pastor saying there is a time when we doing everything for the first time and there is a time when we doing everything for the last time.) That moment is coming -- we are just a mist -- a vapor -- and it's over.
Doesn't It Make Sense To Completely Entrust The Future To God?
Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
Instead -- this is the way we ought to live life. We ought to live life recognizing that we are not in control and God is. Ill of walking across platform -- I don't really know if I can make it across. Every step I take, I am completely dependant upon the reality that it might be God's choice not to give me another step or another breath. What would you have done if I dropped off while I was doing that? (Some of you would have rejoiced that you finally got a shorter message. Who knows? Maybe God is finally going to answer your prayers!) We buy into a false sense of security. Does it make more sense to live with the knowledge that God is in control or to live with this false sense of security thinking that life is always going to go along as I've planned it out? When we say, "If it is God's will," what are we saying? God is sovereign. God is at the center of my life. I have my plans -- I have my ideas -- but what God has planned for me trumps anything I might put into place. What God has planned for me might be an interruption to my plans -- it might not make sense from my perspective -- it might be burdensome and hard and difficult -- it might even mean extra work and exertion and energy -- it might be different from my what I've planned -- it might be uncomfortable -- it might tire me out -- but if it is from God than I must say yes. How can I say no?
Where is the limit of His sovereignty in our lives? as believers we should be marked by a sort of constant commitment to the contingency of the will of God. No matter what we've planned, no matter what we pray, no matter what we set out to accomplish, always with the flexibility that says...If the Lord desires. That's how we live. Have you set any limits on God's plans for you? or do you give everyday to Him asking him to fulfill his plan for you that day.
Does it Make Sense to Boast As If We Are In Control?
As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.(James 4:16)
Notice the words -- "as it is" There is a way that God wants us to live but what we do is something different. We don't live every day asking God for direction and guidance and what His plans are for us that day -- as it is -- we do want we plan and don't even consider what God desires are. We make these plans and assume that we can carry them out -- that's bragging. That's evil. What does God do to those who are proud -- he opposes them. Pride comes before the fall. He says you "boast" - It literally means to be loud-mouthed, or to speak loudly - loud-mouthing about your own accomplishments. -- the next word "brag" is really interesting. is a word that originally referred to the idea of wandering about to sell phony goods. This is the original medicine man "Sep right up, folks, have I got the cure for you." The old huckster, attracting crowds, - charlatans and extravagant fakes duping people to buy their product. They're really giving out lies, they could not accomplish what they claimed. It's the idea of standing up, opening your mouth and bragging pretentiously about your cleverness and your skill. That flows out of a heart filled with pride doesn't it? "I've got my own plans -- I've got my own way of doing things." Such thinking, James says, Is evil. (pornia) - wicked.
Does It Make Sense To Not Respond When We Know We Need to Act?
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
We think of sin as when we do those things that God prohibits. James says there is another way to sin -- when you don't do the things that you know you ought to do, you sin. What do we call that? The sin of omission. God says, "I want you to do this." We don't do it. Scripture says that's sin. What has God called you to do that you haven't done? For some of you, God has called you to go to someone and reconcile and you haven't done that yet -- by putting that off and not going and reconciling, you are in sin. There are good things that God has called you to do and you haven't done them. For some of you God has called you to serve Him in some manner -- and you've said, "No -- that's not part of my plan." It's sin. James is saying pursue the things that God has called you to do. If you don't do that, you are in sin.
ill. Of someone who knew the will of God and wouldn't do it. - Jonah - Remember him? - the prophet who took a short ride in a long fish. Jonah knew God's will, it couldn't have been more clear, go to Ninevah and preach. He turned around and went the opposite way from God and God made him pay. You can't flagrantly, openly violate the will of God without consequence.
The sin of omission can be expressed in two different ways: It could involve doing something God has called you do, but you are resisting and want to follow your own thinking instead. Or it could also be that God wants you to stop doing something that you are currently doing as well. "The good you ought to do" might just be ceasing some behavior that is current in your life. How do you know if it is God's will? either to do something or not do something? - your decision will not violate any other clearly taught biblical principles.
If it violates any other clearly taught biblical principle -- it's not God's will. One might say it's God's will - but if it violates other biblical principles -- it's not possible. God's plan is to be at the center of your life. And the way he accomplishes that is by revealing biblical principle that we are to heed and obey.
Close: - This is an insane way to live -- except for one thing -- except for the resurrection. But if the resurrection is a reality -- then this is the wisest thing that you can do -- because you are going to live eternity with the one that you trusted for the very short period of time you had on earth. If you think this is a crazy way to live - I would counter I think it's crazy not to live this way. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. (1 John 3:16) Doesn't that verse say -- that because of the great sacrifice Jesus has made on our behalf, we ought to be doing anything and everything that God asks of us without a moment's hesitation? We've got a lifespan of a breath - of a vapor and we're going to do what we want instead of what he wants? We're called to be eternally minded, to keep our eyes fixed on heaven and its reward. Not just on the current moment's issues.
I've often wondered what it would be like to be part of a church where everyone simply said, wherever -- whatever -- no matter what you want Lord, I'm yours completely, no hesitation, no qualification no holding back, because I've only got a few brief seconds in the scope of eternity to do what you desire me to do.
It could be here -- It ought to be here. It makes no sense for it not be here.
-You're challenge is to move beyond the "ought to" I gurantee you don't want to hear, "You ought to have" when you stand before the throne.
